Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-02-12
THE SOIL OF WYOMING.
The Land Cut by Clutches aud Draws"
The valleys and Bottoms"

East Nebraska is a prairie: west Nebraska,
with its alkGli streams and sand hills, hegius
TO take somewhat of the character Of this
country, with its strange unevemcSS. But
in Wyoming We reach the consummation Of
roughneSS, in what may have once been
prairie To lie sure, as We look from a car
window, if in the spring, We may see the
strange munument- like sandstOnes and the
crater-like knobs about a plain, 50 seems it,
OF thousands of acres of verlure. The land,
as a rule, Is an aikali, soft limestone and sand
stone formation. the home of the nutritious
buffalo grass and sagebrush Attempt to
ride across one of the plains and you tind how
great the disparity The land is cut in every
conceivable direction by abrupt gulches and
draws, with perpendicular sides from thirty
to one hundred feet deep, entirely concealed
by their character until you are right upon
them.
There IT, no water in these in this season.
They Dually follow the natural watershed,
but head anywhere and everywhere upon the
plain, and, strangest Of all, are as deep and
abrupt in their head as anywhere. You find
the valleys but a repetition of what you SEQ
on a larger scale from a point of eminence-
an apparent plain, and yonder a crater-lke
bluff-but upon ascending its steep side You
are surprised TO find its summit but the
boundary of another plateau, with gulches
deeper and wider. ] spoke of valleys
moment ago; this country has none after the
fashion of any eastern conceptions The
streams are few and far between. usually
from twelve to twenty miles and more, and
then the merest rivulets, at this season, after
sinking for miles in their course, and occa-
sionally breaking out spring and flowing
a short distance. These rivulets have narrow
bottoms" often quite fertile, but scarcely
more than garden spots, with few Scrubby
cottonwoods and box-elders, entirely hidden
from view by the proximity Of the neighbor-
ing bluffs. When wider and more like val
leys, as is the bottom of the Platte, they are
too sandy for cultivation. 1t is only by
irrigation that even the bottoms" are made
productive. 1t is along these bottoms that
the cattle have been accustomed to water and
that the ranches have been built. All this
beautiful country to look upon is utterly be
yond the reach Of the plow or any agricul-
tural crop, and is only saved from utter
desert by the spring rains, which grow the
grass III a short month or 50.
Just break the sod for any purpose and the
soil is the sport of the winds. The only pos.
sible hope would be in arteSian wells, hut
they could not be reached for thousands OF
feet, and possibly not then, without great
expense but with success probably scarce
enough to supply man and beast. There are
at present four ways by which men can ac-
quire land in the territory-homestead uGC
acres, pre- -emption llGOl, timber culture nGO)
and desert retaining j640D. Now none of
these rights can be exercised except along the
streams, and then the very loosest construc
ton must be made of the conditions applic
able only to an unbroken prairie. yomins
Letter in Detroit Free Press.